Review of Earth to Echo (2014) by Jocelyn B — 19 Oct 2014

A little bit saccharine, a bit overly sincere, this film scrapes by on good intentions and a genuinely cute mascot. The acting is spotty, with kid actors who are obviously excited to be in a major production, with dreams of starring in the next E.T. The film appeals to the audience's impulse to awe, glossing over inconvenient world-building issues such as why such a tiny, fragile, and weak creature is out traveling the galaxy when these sorts of catastrophic malfunctions can happen that strand him on an alien planet. Nevermind the questions of exactly what sort of technology enables him to levitate things like he increasingly does as he reassembles the "key" to his ship. Some sort of primary drive unit, I guess. And it is inconsistent. In one of the film's "wow" moments, an 18 wheeler barreling toward our blucky heroes is disassembled on a dime, the pieces floated around the kids, and then fully reassembled behind them flawlessly (sidebar: the CGI here is weak, also). Yet just after this, the alien's device, something like a pilot's seat, fruitlessly clatters against the entrance of the ship for some reason.

I appreciate the inclusion of coping with the world of adults, being a non-agent and subject to what grownups do, to the point of having to move and facing the loss of your friends. Of course, another classic Spielberg film covered this as well, The Goonies. So the film really does ape that period of movies, not unlike Super 8. The kids just seem a bit fake a good deal of the time. There are some good moments where they break through this limitation and give us really genuine acting. And it's not all on the kids, either, there's a significant adult role that had an important scene and dropped the ball, I felt, also. Possibly subconsciously holding back because the scene called for him to intimidate some kids.

All in all, I would say this movie is really for preadolescents. Its artifice becomes apparent to more and more people in their teens and up.